be careful when trying to save on energy

Relak

I've used the cheap energy club here to find a better deal for my gas & electricity. I was very please when it came back with almost a £300 of potential annual saving (across both utilities). The Spark Energy came up as the cheapest supplier. I've completed the switch request on their website choosing the tariff that was supposed to save me the money and agreeing the direct debit (which is a condition to be able to use that tariff). When I received the break down of my direct debit from Spark Energy however, it turned out that not only there was no savings there, they haven't even matched the previous price, in fact I would be paying £360 more per year! Of course, I immediately cancelled that direct debit. When I contacted Spark Energy querying this, their representative has told me that the tariff could be adjusted to what I was quoted and that I shouldn't have cancelled the direct debit. To me this was a serious breach of trust and abuse of direct debit facility. When I accept the quote, I expect to be charged exactly that amount. I don't expect having to go back to the supplier and renegotiate the price. Naturally, I have no intention of doing any business with Spark Energy anymore. I'm posting here because it struck me that there might be other people out there who switch to save money and then never check whether the actual price they are paying is the same as what was quoted in the first place. To be honest, it never occurred to me to check before. I thought the price have to be the same as the quote that convinced me to buy in the first place. This is clearly not the case and I nearly missed it this time.

good luck with you switching and stay alert

keith1950

Hi, surely you are mixing up what is considered to be the annual saving with the payment level that the direct debit is set at.

As a new customer with them Spark may want you to pay extra for a few months until they see your useage pattern.

At the end of the day you would save, say £300 during the year as a whole and once they have monitored your useage they would probably re-adjust your direct debit to the appropriate level.

Sometimes energy suppliers require a upfront deposit of £200 or so to protect themselves from customers with poor credit files.

victor2

As above.
If the rate per kWh (and standing charge if applicable) quoted in the paperwork was the same as when you signed up online, then they hadn't really done anything wrong. Over the year, it would work out at the same as the quoted price for the same usage.

Cancelling the direct debit doesn't cancel the agreement. You have to do that during the "cooling off" period, then cancel the DD if you want to be sure. Maybe you have cancelled the agreement anyway, if you have been in touch with Spark.

Just search this forum for threads regarding Spark - it'll probably reinforce your decision to cancel!

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I think this statement is incorrect:

their representative has told me that the tariff could be adjusted to what I was quoted

Do you not mean the Direct Debit could be adjusted.

Are you saying that if their predicted annual cost was, say, £1,200 you expected to pay £100 monthly by DD but it was fixed at, say, £130?

If that was the case, it might be that they have a remit to have your account with a zero balance in, say, May and then your DD would have been re-calculated.

Hasbeen

As per posters above, you have perhaps confused the provisional monthly direct debit set by spark with actual yearly cost?

If Spark will save you £300 approx. and is the cheapest for the YEAR then it would be best in my opinion to stay with them.

You can probably still telephone them and discuss a payment suitable to both parties.

chris1973

Read some of the reviews on Spark Energy on the review sites, they are well known for dreaming up huge direct debit payments.

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews199569.html
http://www.sparkenergyreviews.co.uk/reviews/index

Wywth

chris1973 wrote: »

Read some of the reviews on Spark Energy on the review sites, they are well known for dreaming up huge direct debit payments.

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews199569.html
http://www.sparkenergyreviews.co.uk/reviews/index

The trouble is:

Can you find any supplier you would recommend based on reviews posted on that reviewcentre link.

And as for the spark energy link, well just as anyone can sign up here and post what they like (and there are countless newbie accounts with negative posts about Spark), anyone can sign up to the Spark site and post anything they want, even if they are not a customer ... as I have proven.

It amazes me one or two people seem to think that a small company such as Spark are considered such a big threat to their own business with the low prices Spark seem to offer so many.

LOL at 'Sweey as a nut' too who thanked you.
No evidence the user has been on MSE for the previous 4 weeks, but rushed in to thank your post, and just your post, in double quick time. :cool:

Cardew

This from the Spark energy T&Cs

Customers joining Spark Energy during the colder months won't have built up enough credit to cover the more expensive months so their Direct Debits are initially set at a higher rate and reviewed again in the summer to calculate the best amount to cover usage throughout the year. These Direct Debit uplifts are as follows:

13% for sign ups between 8th and 31st October

26% for sign ups between 1st and 30th November

32% for sign ups between 1st and 31st December

30% for sign ups between 1st and 31st January

20% for sign ups between 1st February and 30th April





Your collection value will initially be set based on 1/12th of estimated
annual consumption before being reviewed quarterly to reflect actual
consumption. For customers joining in the winter months, an uplift will be applied to cover the cost of increased consumption during that first winter. The first payment will be taken approx 16 days after the cool off period has expired. The next payment will reflect your preferred payment date and Spark Energy will use this date to take future Direct Debit payments each month thereafter.

yangptangkipperbang

Relak wrote: »

When I received the break down of my direct debit from Spark Energy however, it turned out that not only there was no savings there, they haven't even matched the previous price, in fact I would be paying £360 more per year! Of course, I immediately cancelled that direct debit.......................... To me this was a serious breach of trust and abuse of direct debit facility.

To me this is clear case of someone not reading what they are signing up to.
TBH it seems to be a totally reasonable condition from the supplier, both for their, and the customer's, benefit.

Cardew

Relak wrote: »

When I received the break down of my direct debit from Spark Energy however, it turned out that not only there was no savings there, they haven't even matched the previous price, in fact I would be paying £360 more per year! Of course, I immediately cancelled that direct debit.

Just to spell it out!

Firstly you should appreciate that the initial amount of the Direct Debit(DD) is no indication of your annual cost.

Indeed many call centre staff at Utility companies and comparison websites deliberately set the DD low to lure unsuspecting customers to sign up. They get their commission and a few months down the line the DD is hiked up massively.

It seems to me that Spark Energy have been honest in explaining(in writing) why they initially increase the DD for those signing up in winter.

Also they take the first DD 16 days after the cooling off period.

victor2

Guess it was just a rant.
OP hasn't been back since the initial post.